Kenny Mayne (born September 1, 1959) is a sports journalist for ESPN.
Sports career
A native
of Kent,
Washington
, Mayne is a
former honorable mention junior college All-American quarterback in
1978 at Wenatchee
Valley Community College in Wenatchee, WA
. Kenny graduated from University of
Nevada, Las Vegas
in 1982, with a degree in Broadcasting, where he
was the back-up quarterback and ahead of future NFL star Randall Cunningham on the depth
chart. While at UNLV, Mayne played football for two years
and later signed as a free agent with the
Seattle Seahawks.
He has been the manager for the American League team in the Legends
and Celebrity All Star Softball Game since its inception in
2001.
KSTW
After
beginning his television career with a brief stint as a reporter
for KLVX-TV
in Las
Vegas, Nevada, Mayne spent seven years (1982-9) at KSTW-TV
in Seattle,
Washington. Eventually he became a weekend sports anchor and
weekday news reporter. Mayne resigned from KSTW in 1989.
ESPN
ESPN hired Mayne in 1994 after Mayne had sent ESPN a note inquiring
whether or not the network would hire him. The note simply asked to
check a box, including one option which read,
"We'll hire you
when there's an ESPN5."
Mayne started at ESPN in 1994 as a
SportSmash anchor on
ESPN2, and soon moved over to the main network. He
became well known for his
dry sense of humor
and his unique home run calls.
For a time, he served as co-anchor of the 11PM
SportsCenter with
Dan Patrick after
Keith Olbermann left ESPN. He left
SportsCenter two years later,
moving to an assortment of late night ESPN shows which were usually
re-aired throughout the next morning. Included in his repertoire
was the
game show 2 Minute Drill. Mayne is now most often
seen as the host for
ABC and
ESPN's horse racing events, as well as providing offbeat
feature stories on
Sunday NFL
Countdown in a weekly segment called "The Mayne
Event."
On January 17, 2007,
ESPN signed Mayne to a one
year contract to do features and cover horse racing, as well as
return to
SportsCenter for
about 50 shows in
2007.
[137966]
Beginning October 2nd 2008, Mayne starred in ESPN's first scripted
web series,
Mayne Street, playing a fictionalized version
of himself.
Mayne doubles as an outfielder and on-the-field commentator
annually in the
Taco Bell
All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game, broadcast
exclusively on
ESPN.
Other ventures
In January 2006, Mayne participated in the second season of
ABC's
Dancing with the Stars
with partner Andrea Hale, but after a disastrous
cha-cha, Mayne was the first contestant
to be eliminated in the first round. In an interview with Brian
Falvey in the Spring of 2007, Mayne joked that he left the
2006 Rose Bowl at halftime in order to get up
early the next day to practice for "Dancing with the Stars."
Subsequent seasons have seen Mayne return to the show infrequently
during the Results nights for "DanceCenter," a parody of
SportsCenter alongside former contestant Jerry Rice and
judge Len Goodman.
Mayne was also in the 1998 film
BASEketball which featured the creators of
South Park Trey
Parker and
Matt Stone. He was
alongside
Dan Patrick and appeared on
SportsCenter to cover the latest
BASEketball playoff competition.
[137967]
Before agreeing to the deal with
ESPN, Mayne
had talks with
Comedy Central about
doing a sports-themed
The Daily
Show-style program and was a finalist to be the host of
the syndicated version of
Deal or No
Deal. He confirmed both discussions.
[137968]
Mayne has recently appeared in commercials for
Progressive auto insurance,
and Top Flite golf balls.
In November 2006, Mayne hosted the pilot episode of the CBS
Primetime game show
Power of 10
which would later be hosted by
Drew
Carey.
Power of 10 producer
Michael Davies was
impressed with his performance on
2 Minute Drill, and
wanted him to host one of his other game shows. After Mayne hosted
the pilot, he decided to decline this hosting opportunity and it
was given to Drew Carey.
In 2008 Mayne penned his first book,
An Incomplete And
Inaccurate History Of Sport, a collection of offbeat musings
on sports and pop culture.
References
- [1]
-
http://www.amazon.com/Incomplete-Inaccurate-History-Sport-Fatherhood/dp/0307396150/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226439945&sr=8-1
Amazon.com
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